 |
| Ownership of these projects will be 50:50 for both countries. |
Hydro-power development: Agreement has been sealed with initials on the joint venture projects of Bunakha, Chamkharchu, Kholongchu and Wangchu during the 10th empowered joint group meeting of December 20 and 21 in New Delhi, India.
That done, economic affairs ministry officials said, they expected things to move faster.
Based on the agreement, they said the government of India would now begin processing the approval of their Cabinet.
Economic affairs secretary Dasho Sonam Tshering said what the two sides also agreed on was that, within February, the two governments must obtain all approvals of their governments.
Meanwhile, he said, the joint venture partners should form a working committee to look at issues of pre-constructions, like where the access roads should be, identify construction areas, and seek government approval for land.
The intention, he said, was when the final tender was done for civil package, contractors could begin mobilisation easily.
“That way we don’t lose time,” he said, adding that, as soon as the two governments signed the inter-governmental agreement for joint venture, it is hoped within February 2013, the projects should move forward.
“By the latter half of 2013, we expect all these four projects to move forward,” he said. “That was a very significant move, because now we've resolved all issues, as far as joint venture projects are concerned.”
Dasho Sonam Tshering said the four joint ventures were among the 10,000MW project.
Partners from GoI, their owned companies, had already been identified and detailed project reports (DPRs) for all four projects were more or less completed.
From the Bhutanese side, ministry officials said, the DPRs were endorsed and were awaiting the Indian government’s approval, where its specialist agencies like the Central Electrical Authority and Central Water Commission had to endorse them.
One of the reasons for the country considering the joint venture model, Dasho Sonam Tshering said was because, under the inter-governmental model, financing would be a challenge, in that GoI could not be expected to fund all projects.
While funding mechanism does not change, the ownership of the joint venture projects between both public sector companies (THDC and DGPC) will be 50:50.
“Under inter-governmental model, all the money, including the loan and the grant comes from GoI,” he said, adding inter-governmental models were good, if the country was looking at one project to be taken up between five and 10 years time. “But when we’re trying to develop a series of projects under inter-governmental model, then there’s tremendous financial challenges for GoI also.”
Besides, he said the country already had three projects – Punatsangchu I, II and Mangdechu – already under construction under inter-governmental model.
“The cost of these three projects will be larger than that of the 10th plan budget, which is Nu 143B,” he said. “These three projects together today is more than Nu 150B and, by the time, they’re completed, due to escalation and time overrun, imagine what the cost will be.”
On the inter-governmental projects of Sankosh and Amochu, draft bilateral agreements of which were also forwarded to GoI, economic affairs ministry officials said they were informed by the power ministry of GoI that they had no issues on the agreement.
“So again, they’ll have to process their government approvals on this,” Dasho Sonam Tshering said.
Coming to Kuri-Gongri basin, he said, before the DPR for the project could begin, the technical committee, comprising people from economic affairs ministry, Central Electricity Authority, Central Water Commission and WAPCOS, was expected to visit the project site.
“They’re meant to see which option of the ones national hydropower commission (NHPC) identified is the most viable,” he said. “They also need to get a rough idea of what it would cost to do the DPR.”
So as not to lose out on the entire potential of Kuri-Gongri, NHPC was asked to come up with options that enhanced its capacity to produce more than 2,000MW.
“They’ll complete this exercise within February and, in the next empowered joint group meeting, we’ll take a decision on the project,” he said.
With regards to award of electro-mechanical tenders for Mangdechu hydropower authority, Dasho Sonam Tshering said it went to Bharat Heavy Electrical limited.
The main function of the empowered joint group meeting, he said, was for the purpose of keeping track of the progress of the 10,000MW project.
It also provided a forum for any issues to be raised, discussed and resolved.
No comments:
Post a Comment